In the news, Friday, February 14, 2020

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FEB 13      INDEX      FEB 15

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________

from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

All Alone on Valentine's Day: 12 Econ Facts to Fill the Void

Whether you're single, taken, or just don't care, here are some facts to get you through the day.

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from Media Research Center (MRC)
(& CNSNews.com & NewsBusters)  RIGHT BIAS, MIXED
nonprofit media watchdog for politically conservative content analysis based in Reston, Virginia

Biologists in WSJ: Only Two Sexes, Male and Female, There is No Sex 'Spectrum'
In a powerful commentary in the Feb. 3 edition of The Wall Street Journal, biologists Colin Wright and Emma Hilton explain that, scientifically, there are only two sexes, male and female, and there is no sex "spectrum." They also stress that "biologists and medical professionals" must stop being politically correct and "stand up for the empirical reality of biological sex."

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from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

Government "Fixes" for the Trade Balance Are Worse Than Any Trade Deficit
The national trade account balance is of little economic significance and is a sterile concept. But the government’s attempts to "fix" it can have many harmful effects.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Oregon landfill took 2M pounds of radioactive fracking waste
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that Oregon Department of Energy officials on Thursday issued a violation notice to Chemical Waste Management for its landfill near the small town of Arlington for accepting a total of 2 million pounds of Bakken oil field waste delivered by rail in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Arlington is about 140 miles east of Portland.

Facebook reverses on paid influencers after Bloomberg memes
Facebook decided Friday to allow a type of paid political message that had sidestepped many of the social network’s rules governing political ads, in a reversal that highlights difficulties tech companies and regulators have in keeping up with the changing nature of paid political messages. Its policy change comes days after Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg exploited a loophole to run humorous messages promoting his campaign on the accounts of popular Instagram personalities followed by millions of younger people.

Trump wants $1.5B over 10 years to revive US uranium mining
The Trump administration is asking Congress for $1.5 billion over 10 years to create a new national stockpile of U.S.-mined uranium, saying that propping up U.S. uranium production in the face of cheaper imports is a matter of vital energy security. But some Democratic lawmakers, and market analysts across the political spectrum, charge that the Trump administration’s overall aim is really about helping a few uranium companies that can’t compete in the global market.

Eastern Washington tribes receive $6.5 million in federal housing funds
Three tribes in Eastern Washington received $6.5 million in federal funds to build affordable housing projects. The Colville Confederated Tribes received $4 million, while the Spokane tribe received $2.4 million in block grant funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Kalispel tribe received nearly $100,000.

Alexis Coe: Five myths about George Washington
During a 2019 visit to Mount Vernon, the historic home of George Washington, President Donald Trump reportedly said: “If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it. You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.” Such self-importance would have pained the first president, who didn’t need ostentatious preening to become the namesake of the nation’s capital, a state, a university and countless other things. Nobody has forgotten him. We have, however, misremembered him – and the myths about him are as illuminating as they are false.

House approves carve out for media on birth date disclosure
The Washington House on Friday passed a bill on a 91-7 vote that exempts birth dates of state and local government employees from public disclosure, but allows the media to continue to have access to them. The bill is in response to an October ruling by the state Supreme Court that said birth dates of state employees are public records that are subject to disclosure. In a 5-4 ruling, the court said there was no statutory or constitutional allowance that would preclude the release of such information.

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In the news, Thursday, February 13, 2020

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FEB 12      INDEX      FEB 14

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from America Magazine - The Jesuit Review

To prevent spread of COVID-19, Hong Kong Diocese cancels Masses
The threat of spreading the coronavirus has forced Catholic officials in Hong Kong to suspend all church programs Feb. 15-28, including Sunday Masses and the Ash Wednesday liturgy that marks the beginning of Lent.

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from Financial Times

LEAST BIASED, HIGH, business and economic newspaper in London, UK

Coronavirus was not genetically engineered in a Wuhan lab, says expert
A scientist at the forefront of an international effort to track the deadly coronavirus outbreak has shot down claims about the disease’s origins, including that it escaped from a Wuhan laboratory after being genetically engineered. Trevor Bedford, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, rubbished stories circulating on social media that Covid-19 was created at Wuhan Institute of Virology or elsewhere in China, rumours that prompted the World Health Organization to warn of an “infodemic” of false news on the outbreak.

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from The Guardian (UK)

Coronavirus: China purges regional leaders hours after spike in deaths and cases
The number of deaths and infections caused by the coronavirus in China has risen sharply after authorities changed the way they calculated the figures amid a purge of party officials in the stricken province of Hubei. On Thursday China confirmed 254 additional deaths – the majority of them in Hubei, the centre of the outbreak, bringing the total death toll to 1,370. After days of declines in new infections, Hubei province reported an enormous increase of almost 15,000 – a jump of about a third on the total so far. Hubei’s health commission said it was now including in its confirmed tally those people diagnosed via CT scans as well as via testing kits. Previously, the authorities had included only those cases confirmed by the diagnostic testing kits, which are in short supply. The change has been applied only to Hubei province.

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from HumanProgress.org  Education Website

The Battle to Feed Humanity Has Been Won
For millennia, people lived on the edge of starvation. Today, starvation has disappeared outside of war zones.

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from Inlander

Offering free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, crisis pregnancy centers try to 'slow down' thoughts of abortion in an ultimate quest to stop it

Crisis pregnancy centers are gaining popularity, buoyed by the pro-life movement. Using private donors and, in some cases, public money, volunteers operate thousands of centers around the country. While operating under far less scrutiny than the medical health centers they vastly outnumber, the movement's mobile clinic vans and brick-and-mortar pregnancy centers often locate as close as possible to clinics that offer abortion, in part to divert women on their way there.

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from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

Rothbard: The Constitution Was a Coup d'État
Rothbard took the American Revolution to be mainly libertarian in its inspiration, but he contends that the libertarian impulses of the Revolution were betrayed by a centralizing coup d’état. If Rothbard is right, the Constitution as written provides ample scope for tyranny.

Foreign Aid Just Empowers Corrupt Regimes. End It.
US aid to foreign regimes helps free governments from having to raise funds from their own people. So, the recipients of foreign aid are likely to become less responsive and more corrupt.

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from POLITICO

Pentagon to shift $3.8B for fighter planes, ships toward border wall
The Trump administration plans to sap money intended to build fighter jets, ships, vehicles and National Guard equipment in order to fund barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Pentagon told Congress on Thursday, a move that has agitated Democrats and even drawn condemnation from a top House Republican. The surprise reprogramming of another $3.8 billion, transmitted to Congress and provided to POLITICO, means the Pentagon will have forked over nearly $10 billion since last year to help pay for President Donald Trump's border wall. But this shift in funding marks a new phase for the administration, which until now had used money set for military construction and counterdrug operations, not combat equipment. The fiscal 2020 money will be moved into drug interdiction accounts that the Pentagon tapped last year to fund border barrier projects.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Senate moves to limit Trump on military force against Iran
The Senate approved a bipartisan measure Thursday aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s authority to launch military operations against Iran, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in a post-impeachment bid to constrain the White House. The rebuke was the Senate’s first major vote since acquitting Trump on impeachment charges last week. Trump is expected to veto the war powers resolution if it reaches his desk, warning that if his “hands were tied, Iran would have a field day.”’

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In the news, Wednesday, February 12, 2020

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FEB 11      INDEX      FEB 13

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from HumanProgress.org

Education Website

Monnery: Human Progress in Cuba and Hong Kong, Pt. 3

As the world entered the turbulent 1960s, two men, half a world apart, one a doctor and the other a classicist, both foreigners far from home, were charged with bringing human progress to their adopted countries. More than half a century later, their principles still drive the policies of those economies today. They held a common objective. Both were determined to create a better world for their people. But their proposed solutions could not have been more different. One, Che Guevara, the well-known Argentinean revolutionary, was the architect of Cuba’s communist economic system. The other, Sir John Cowperthwaite, was born in Britain and is largely unknown today. He was central to Hong Kong’s post-war recovery and to its unique laissez-faire, free-market economic policy. Both were avid students of economics, but whereas Guevara looked to the German historian Karl Marx, Cowperthwaite looked to the Scottish economist Adam Smith.

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from KIVI (ABC Boise, ID)

Coronavirus precautions taken after Ada County man found dead
On Sunday, February 9, the Ada County Coroner’s Office was dispatched to a locked home in the Pierce Park area of north Boise following a welfare check by Boise Police Department officers. Officials found the resident, later identified as 71-year-old Frederick Gilbert, dead inside the home. He had not been seen for several days. “Mr. Gilbert was in advanced stages of decomposition.” Officials learned that Gilbert had recently traveled out of the country and had stayed in both India and China. update: ... additional testing came back Tuesday, February 25 and were negative for COVID-19.

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from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

The Anticapitalist Front
From the very beginnings of the socialist movement and the endeavors to revive the interventionist policies of the precapitalistic ages, both socialism and interventionism were utterly discredited in the eyes of those conversant with economic theory. But the ideas of the revolutionaries and reformers found approval with the immense majority of ignorant people exclusively driven by the most powerful human passions of envy and hatred. The rising generation is brought up in an environment that is engrossed in socialist ideas.

US Mandatory Spending Projected to Increase Over a Trillion Dollars by 2023
Even if discretionary spending stays flat, total government outlays are estimated to increase by more than $1 trillion, significantly above any measure of tax revenues. And that is without considering a possible recession.

China's Economic Schemes Hurt the Chinese Most of All
n his State of the Union Address—February 4, 2020—President Trump outlined his reasons for punishing nations that manipulate their economies in order to achieve some internal policy goal, such as China. The president claimed that such manipulation was unfair and harmful to its trading partners. His main concern is that by manipulating its economy China "steals" jobs. Like Trump, I want China to stop manipulating its economy. But not for the same reasons Trump does.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Vern Ziegler, founder of Ziggy’s home improvement stores, dies at 84
Vern Ziegler slept with a tape recorder beside his bed and carried it with him nearly everywhere he went. That way, if he woke up in the middle of the night with an idea, or had one while driving down the road in his truck, he could ensure it wouldn’t be lost. Vern Ziegler died on Feb. 6. He was 84.

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In the news, Tuesday, February 11, 2020

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FEB 10      INDEX      FEB 12

________

________

from HumanProgress.org  Education Website

Monnery: Human Progress in Cuba and Hong Kong, Pt. 2
Sixty years of meager human progress in Cuba.
Those who crowded the streets of Havana in 1959, hoping that the fall of Batista’s crony capitalism would usher in a period of human progress, have been sadly disappointed. Anyone interested in what prevents economic and human progress can learn many lessons from Cuba’s stagnation. As Fidel Castro progressed slowly toward Havana in the first days of 1959, he was met by huge crowds of enthusiastic supporters. The ex-president, Fulgencio Batista, had fled in the early hours of New Year’s Day to the Dominican Republic, accompanied by various supporters and an estimated $700 million in cash, art and bullion. With a high degree of corruption, the brazen presence of the U.S. mafia, and the use of violence to ensure control, Cuba’s crony capitalism had little support, even from its previous backers in the United States. Batista had fallen and, for the cheering crowds, the revolution was a chance to replace a system that enriched a small corrupt clique with one that promised to deliver human progress to the Cuban people as a whole. Castro had expressed little by way of an economic agenda other than his commitment to land reform, greater democracy and better education. It was a program that made it easy for him to ally with others. When he took control, he even appointed a liberal president and prime minister. Six months after the revolution (July 1959), Castro could assert, “I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement.”

________

from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

Small Countries Are Better: They're Often Richer and Safer Than Big Countries
In the wake of the Brexit vote, Scottish nationalists have renewed their calls for a new referendum on Scottish independence. But many remain unconvinced, and many claim Scotland is "too small" to be an independent country. Others claim that Scotland is too poor, since Scotland's GDP per capita is only 90 percent that of England. Smaller countries have often been shown to perform better than large countries in terms of overall income and in economic growth. Also, their populations often enjoy more healthy and safe social environments.

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from The News Tribune
News & Media Website in Tacoma, WA

Sound Transit wins fight over inflated values it uses to raise cash from car tabs
Sound Transit on Thursday won a lawsuit that took aim at the heart of the transit agency’s taxpayer funding. In a 7-2 decision, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the transit agency’s motor vehicle excise tax as constitutional. Chief Justice Debra Stephens and Sheryl McCloud dissented. The legal dispute revolved around how the transit agency uses a formula that inflates the value of vehicles when it levies a motor vehicle excise tax, pumping more money into its coffers. Vehicle owners in urban parts of Pierce, King, and Snohomish counties pay the tax through their car tabs.

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from NPR (& affiliates)

Nonprofit Broadcasting & Media Production Company

'Just Plain Ugly': Proposed Executive Order Takes Aim At Modern Architecture
The architectural world is reeling over President Trump's call for traditional designs for new Federal buildings. His proposed executive order is called "Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again," it takes an out-with-the-new, in-with-the-old approach to architecture, calling modern federal buildings constructed over the last five decades "undistinguished," "uninspiring" and "just plain ugly."

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________

from The Washington Post

Newspaper in Washington, D.C.

Putin has set his eyes on Belarus. The West can help it resist.
Vladimir Putin has spent much of his two decades in power attempting to restore Moscow’s rule over former republics of the Soviet Union. For the most part, he has failed. Though he has applied economic pressure, organized electoral fraud, mounted propaganda campaigns and cyberwars, and, in the cases of Georgia and Ukraine, resorted to military invasion, he has regained only a few fragments of territory outside Russia’s borders, while alienating nations that used to be close friends. Yet Mr. Putin is undeterred. He has now mounted a new effort to subjugate Belarus, a country of 10 million wedged between Russia, the Baltic states and Poland. His aim is to force Belarusan President Alexsander Lukashenko to finally implement a 20-year-old agreement that would merge the two countries, essentially turning Belarus into a province.

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In the news, Monday, February 10, 2020

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FEB 09      INDEX      FEB 11

________

________

from Daily Mail

RIGHT BIAS, QUESTIONABLE SOURCE, tabloid newspaper in the UK

China now has to fight coronavirus AND bird flu: 'Highly pathogenic' avian influenza hits two Chinese provinces near Hubei
Some 1,840 fowl were killed by the H5N6 virus in Sichuan, China said yesterday. 4,500 chickens had died of the H5N1 bug in Hunan, officials reported on Feb. 1. Four cases of bird flu outbreaks were also recorded in Xinjiang in January alone. The news comes as Beijing drains all its medical resources to fight coronavirus. The disease has killed at least 910 people and infected over 40,640 globally. Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?

________

from The Guardian (UK)

Storm Ciara batters Europe – in pictures
Storm Ciara, one of the most violent for years, has left a trail of destruction in Europe. One man was killed and another reported missing in southern Sweden when their boat capsized. Another man was killed in the UK when a tree fell on to his car.

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from HumanProgress.org  Education Website

Monnery: Human Progress in Cuba and Hong Kong, Pt. 1
Sixty years of outstanding human progress in Hong Kong.
Whatever the future may hold for Hong Kong, the period since World War II should receive more attention than it does. It is perhaps the best example of policies delivering human progress and prosperity that we have seen to date. As World War II drew to a close, few visitors to Hong Kong would have predicted that this “barren island” would be the setting for one of the most impressive surges of human progress that the world has yet seen. Four years of Japanese occupation had more than halved the population, left factories stripped bare, and ended normal commercial activity. Although a British colony, the mother-country had no resources to provide any meaningful financial support. All it could offer was the rule or law, good governance, and a willingness to get out of the way of those people who were trying to rebuild their businesses. Happily, that was enough, and the people of Hong Kong quickly re-established the entrepôt trade with China. The population rebounded and incomes per capita rose back to their pre-war level.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Faith and Values: The problem with tolerance
By Tracy Simmons: Recently I was chatting with a friend when the silly question came up, “If you had to wear one T-shirt for a whole year with only one word on it, what would it say?” After thinking about it, my friend responded, “Tolerance.” I pushed back.

Then and Now: Old City Hall
Now called the “old” City Hall, the building at Wall Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard was erected after the city agreed to sell their 1894 City Hall to railroad companies who were developing a new downtown train station. The 1913 City Hall building at the corner of Wall St. and Spokane Falls Boulevard housed city offices from its opening until employees moved across the street to the new City Hall, which was the former Montgomery Ward department store building, in 1982. This building, designed by Hermann Preusse and Julius Zittel, was planned and built somewhat hastily as the city had a deadline to move out of the first city hall built in 1894.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: GOP playing the game by different rules
Someone should explain that to the right-wing political establishment, whose members are up in arms over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up a copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address moments after he finished delivering it. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, that tower of Jell-O that walks like a man, pronounced this “pathetic.” Rep. Lee Zeldin called it “disgusting.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dubbed it “petty.” And so on. Which is, of course, hypocrisy on a galactic scale. A Trump enabler has about as much business criticizing a breach of decorum as Bill Cosby does teaching sex ed. Indeed, they have zero standing to lecture the rest of us on any question of right and wrong.

Inslee signs B&O tax surcharge to pay for expanded college aid
A change in state tax law that will hit many professional firms and tech businesses while it helps to pay for Washington’s expanded college scholarship programs was signed Monday by Gov. Jay Inslee. The business and occupation tax surcharge was the first bill to pass both chambers of the Legislature this year, in part because it was needed to correct problems with the original law passed last year in the closing days of the 2019 session.

Federal attorneys fire opening shot in fight over immigration enforcement restrictions in state of Washington
Federal attorneys in Seattle filed what may be an opening shot in a battle with the state on immigration policies and their enforcement. On its face, the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle seems narrow. It challenges the ability of King County to ban flights involving deportations into Boeing Field, which the county operates.

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In the news, Sunday, February 9, 2020

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FEB 08      INDEX      FEB 10

________

________

from BBC News (UK)

Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay: Dunkirk mastermind museum approved
Plans have been approved for a museum at the family home of the man who masterminded the evacuation of Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo, which saw the rescue of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers, was run under the command of Vice-Admiral Bertram Home Ramsay. By 1943 he was appointed naval commander in chief for Operation Overlord, the projected Allied invasion of northern France. The ships under his command landed one million troops in France in one month starting from D-Day in June 1944.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

The 7 Most Important Factors for Getting Rich
Some people believe that becoming rich is a question of luck. I disagree. Whether chance presents you with a good opportunity or not is not the key question.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

LETTERS:
Pitts owes an apology
Leonard Pitts just can’t help himself. He represents what the left thinks about Republicans, conservatives, Trump supporters — including independents — that the left is just smarter than the rest of us! If we were smarter we would see things the way he does!  - Greg Schuster

Report: Idahoans split on breaching the four lower Snake River dams
A new poll from Boise State University indicates that Idahoans are roughly split in their support for removing the four lower Snake River dams in Washington to save the Gem State’s threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead. The fifth annual Idaho Public Policy Survey, conducted by the university’s School of Public Service and the Idaho Policy Institute, covered several topics, including people’s feelings about the direction of the state, education, growth, and budget and taxes. On the dams and salmon issue, respondents were statistically tied, with 40% in favor of breaching and 38.3% opposed. Another 21.7% were unsure.

Lindsey Graham says DOJ will handle information from Giuliani on Bidens
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday that the Justice Department is vetting information that President Donald Trump’s personal attorney has delivered regarding Hunter Biden’s work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.Graham, citing an early-morning conversation with Attorney General William Barr, said that Rudy Giuliani is giving his information to national security experts and that he would back off his own plans to use the Senate Judiciary Committee as a vehicle to investigate the Biden family.

A look at Rep. Matt Shea’s legal career: Recently laid off, he’s sued bad drivers and a state university

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In the news, Saturday, February 8, 2020

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FEB 07      INDEX      FEB 09

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________

from BBC News (UK)

Doctor wanted for remote isle ... fainthearted need not apply
Colonsay, jewel of the Inner Hebrides, is looking for a new GP. The successful candidate will need a taste for adventure.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

The Price of Repaying Student Loans for 10 Years Instead of Investing

Financial counselors have long stressed that the “miracle of compounding” becomes increasingly powerful the longer any funds are held. By delaying investing because of student loan debt, young people lose more than many realize.

Margaret Thatcher on Socialism: 20 of Her Best Quotes

In 1979, the Iron Lady assumed the premiership of a country riven with labor strife, racked by stagflation and run down by decades of nanny government. Britain struggled on all fronts as the sick man of Europe. For the most part, Thatcher didn’t propose to fix big problems through small tweaks as other cowardly or unprincipled politicians were suggesting. She set about, in her words, to “roll back the frontiers of the state.” She wanted to reinvigorate the country by restoring a culture of entrepreneurship and respect for private property.

________

from KXLY 4 News (ABC Spokane)

After years of skyrocketing costs, lawmakers across the US push for caps on life-saving insulin payments

________

from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

Socialism Always Fails
Socialists tell us that if the rest of us will give them total power over our lives, this time they will provide prosperity, and unlike previous socialist regimes, they won’t strip us of our liberties. We should have as much confidence in their words as the loved ones of Laura Hillier had in the empty promises of Canadian medical officials.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Sue Lani Madsen: Farmers have to balance their interests with those of urban landowners
Farmers have always faced the risk of weather. Trade wars are not new, and farmers who spoke off the record said standing up to China has been a long time coming. They’ll wait it out like an untimely summer thunderstorm at harvest. Explaining farming to a software engineer in San Francisco or an investment trust out of New York is a new kind of risk in a country increasingly divided between urban and rural culture.

Joe Walsh: My party has become a cult
When I announced my primary challenge to President Donald Trump last year, I knew running against him for the GOP nomination was the ultimate long shot. Even now, after impeachment, after three years of vulgarities, inanities, betrayals and racist screeds, he has a 94% approval rating among Republicans in the latest Gallup poll. My chances are slim – don’t worry, I know.

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Them Dam Writers Online in the Star Index

Beginning with the July 31, 2019 issue, The Star, a weekly newspaper in Grand Coulee, Washington, began featuring a history column from "Them Dam Writers," with which this blog participates. In addition to the history column, other articles appearing in The Star which are of particular interest will be featured in this blog, including articles from the past



2020

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2019

Jan      Feb      Mar      Apr      May      Jun      Jul      Aug      Sep      Oct      Nov      Dec

July - December, 2019

Jan      Feb      Mar      Apr      May      Jun      Jul      Aug      Sep      Oct      Nov      Dec

Them Dam Writers Online in the Star, February 2020

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back      Them Dam Writers Online Index      next

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February 5, 2020




Also of interest in this issue:




February 12, 2020

In the news, Friday, February 7, 2020

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FEB 06      INDEX      FEB 08

________

________

from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Wickard v. Filburn: The Supreme Court Case That Gave the Federal Government Nearly Unlimited Power

The Constitution creates a government of enumerated powers, which means the federal government is only authorized to do things that are specifically listed in the Constitution.

________

from The Guardian (UK)

Charles Dickens Museum's new exhibits – in pictures
The Charles Dickens Museum, located in the townhouse in Bloomsbury, London, into which the writer moved with his young family in 1837, has acquired a private collection of more than 300 items, including unpublished letters, personal objects, portraits, sketches, playbills and books.

________

from HumanProgress.org

Education Website

Heroes of Progress, Pt. 37: James Elam and Peter Safar

This week, our heroes are James Elam and Peter Safar, the two physicians who discovered and popularized modern cardiopulmonary resuscitation, also known as CPR. Elam and Safar’s modern method of CPR is taught to people across the world as the go-to way to resuscitate an unresponsive person. The World Economic Forum has estimated that Elam and Safar’s CPR technique has already saved 5 million people and continues to save hundreds of thousands of people every year.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Trump takes revenge in purge of witnesses after his acquittal
Two days after he was acquitted by the Senate for abuse of power and obstruction, President Donald Trump exacted vengeance Friday against two administration officials who gave damaging testimony during the House impeachment inquiry, firing his ambassador to the European Union and ousting the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council.

House passes Puerto Rico aid in face of Trump veto threat
The Democratic-controlled House on Friday passed a $20 billion-plus aid package for Puerto Rico, where a swarm of earthquakes last month set back the island territory’s slow, troubled recovery from the hurricane devastation of 2017. But the White House has promised to veto the legislation, charging the island’s government of mismanagement and weak financial controls. It arrives in the Senate as a dead letter anyway. Puerto Rico’s non-voting congressional delegate, Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, a Republican, urged Democrats to look for common ground in hopes of getting agreement on an aid package the White House might accept.

Trump’s ex-Navy secretary endorses Bloomberg for president
The former Navy secretary who was fired after criticizing President Donald Trump said Friday he is endorsing Democrat Michael Bloomberg for president. Bloomberg’s campaign said former Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer was set to announce the endorsement during an event at a maritime center and museum in Norfolk, Virginia.

Trump ousts officials who testified in impeachment inquiry
Taking swift and harsh action against those who crossed him, President Donald Trump on Friday ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony during his impeachment hearings. Trump made the moves just two days after his acquittal by the Senate.

Judge weighs challenge to Tim Eyman’s $30 car tab measure
A King County Superior Court judge who has already temporarily blocked initiative promoter Tim Eyman’s latest $30 car tab measure from taking effect said he hopes to rule next week on whether it’s constitutional.

Feds fight $1 million Hanford fine. It increases $30,000 every week the fight continues
A fine of more than $1 million issued by the state of Washington to the Department of Energy is excessive and unlawful, DOE said in an appeal of the penalty filed this week.

Henry Olsen: Trump’s address on his acquittal showcases why people hate him. And love him.
President Donald Trump inspires devotion and hatred in nearly equal measures. His Thursday address celebrating his acquittal by the Senate showed exactly why that’s the case.

Anger and virus cases grow in China; death toll at 722
The number of confirmed cases of the new virus has risen again in China while fatalities increased to 722 on Saturday including an American, as the ruling Communist Party faced anger and recriminations from the public over the death of a doctor who was threatened by police after trying to sound the alarm about the disease over a month ago. The government announced that another 3,399 people had been diagnosed over the last 24 hours, reversing two days of declines, and raising the total accumulated number of cases on the mainland to 34,546.

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In the news, Thursday, February 6, 2020

________

FEB 05      INDEX      FEB 07

________

________

from National Review  RIGHT BIAS

Pornography Is a Public-Health Problem
Should we ban online pornography? This question has been greatly exercising the Right. Many libertarians say no, since to do so would be an affront to free speech. Many social conservatives say yes, since not to do so would be an affront to the common good. Both positions are compelling, which is why they are unhelpful as a starting point. A better place to begin is the apolitical medical research establishing the facts about porn beyond a reasonable doubt, to be followed by a dogged public-health campaign, and then targeted political action.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Trump says U.S. operation killed al-Qaida leader in Yemen
President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. at his direction has conducted a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen that killed Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for last year’s deadly shooting at the Naval Air Station Pensacola where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors.

Trump administration moves ahead on shrinking Utah monuments
The U.S. government implemented final management plans Thursday for two national monuments in Utah that President Donald Trump downsized. The plans ensure lands previously off-limits to energy development will be open to mining and drilling despite pending lawsuits by conservation, tribal and paleontology groups challenging the constitutionality of the president’s action.

Trump unleashes fury at impeachment enemies at prayer event
President Donald Trump unleashed his fury against those who tried to impeach him at a prayer breakfast Thursday, a day after his acquittal by the Senate. “As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,” Trump said at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. He spoke from a stage where he was joined by congressional leaders, including Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the impeachment charge against him.

Japan finds 41 more cases on ship as virus alarm doctor dies
Japan on Friday reported 41 new cases of a virus on a cruise ship that’s been quarantined in Yokohama harbor while the death toll in mainland China rose to 636, including a doctor who got in trouble with authorities in the communist country for sounding an early warning about the disease threat.

Chinese doctor, silenced by police after trying to raise coronavirus alarm in Wuhan, dies from disease
A Chinese doctor who was silenced by police for trying to share news about the new coronavirus long before Chinese health authorities disclosed its full threat died Thursday after falling ill, his friends and colleagues said. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, became a national hero and symbol of the Chinese government’s systemic failings last month. Li, 34, had tried to warn his medical school classmates Dec. 30 about the existence of a contagious new virus that resembled the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Chinese scientists ask for patent on U.S. drug to fight virus
Scientists in the city at the center of China’s virus outbreak have applied to patent a drug made by U.S. company Gilead Sciences Inc. to treat the disease, possibly fueling conflict over technology policy that helped trigger Washington’s tariff war with Beijing. The government-run Wuhan Institute of Virology said this week it applied for the patent in January along with a military laboratory. An institute statement acknowledged there are “intellectual property barriers” but said it acted to “protect national interests.”

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In the news, Wednesday, February 5, 2020

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FEB 04      INDEX      FEB 06

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from Bloomberg

Media/News Company

Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills

Companies are searching for ways to deal with the tens of thousands of blades that have reached the end of their lives.

A wind turbine’s blades can be longer than a Boeing 747 wing, so at the end of their lifespan they can’t just be hauled away. First, you need to saw through the lissome fiberglass using a diamond-encrusted industrial saw to create three pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer. The municipal landfill in Casper, Wyoming, is the final resting place of 870 blades whose days making renewable energy have come to end. The severed fragments look like bleached whale bones nestled against one another. ... Tens of thousands of aging blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills. In the U.S. alone, about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years. Europe, which has been dealing with the problem longer, has about 3,800 coming down annually through at least 2022, according to BloombergNEF. It’s going to get worse: Most were built more than a decade ago, when installations were less than a fifth of what they are now.

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from Conciliar Post

A VIEW FROM ABOVE

I flew over the Great Plains. There I saw the grid of man laid out in straight lines marking plots and straight roads making access a higher priority than aesthetic.

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from The Hollywood Reporter

Magazine in Los Angeles, California

Kirk Douglas, Indomitable Icon of Hollywood's Golden Age, Dies at 103
Kirk Douglas, the son of a ragman who channeled a deep, personal anger through a chiseled jaw and steely blue eyes to forge one of the most indelible and indefatigable careers in Hollywood history, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 103. “It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” son Michael Douglas wrote on his Instagram account. “To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the Golden Age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to.” Nominated three times for best actor by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — for Champion (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Lust for Life (1956) — Douglas was the recipient of an honorary Oscar in 1996. Arguably the top male star of the post-World War II era, he acted in more than 80 movies before retiring from films in 2004.

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from Military Times

and Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, and Navy Times

This brutal World War II battle holds lessons for future Pacific fights
An island invasion followed by a “bloody brutal urban brawl.” It’s one piece of a larger Pacific fight against a peer adversary that spread its control across the region, thwarting U.S. military might. The future fight against China or echoes of the past? This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Manila, an often overlooked fight that saw some of the war’s worst atrocities, heaviest urban combat and the U.S. Army diving into a Pacific island campaign that stretched across the theater.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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from The Washington Post

Newspaper in Washington, D.C.

Bomb cyclone to drag atmospheric river to Europe, while jet stream may propel trans-Atlantic flights at speed of sound
A bomb cyclone is about to explode over the North Atlantic, and will help drag the weather system drenching the Southeast United States and its accompanying atmospheric river all the way to Europe. This weather system will smash into Britain after riding along a roaring jet stream reaching speeds over 250 mph. Air passengers hitching a flight along the same jet stream will have an extra-fast ride. The weather system forecast to slam into Britain has been named Ciara, and is expected to unleash heavy rains and strong to damaging winds. Ciara will have its origins from the storm in the Southeast United States, which has generated tornadoes, flooding rain and heavy snow.

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In the news, Tuesday, February 4, 2020

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FEB 03      INDEX      FEB 05

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from Conciliar Post

I HAVE NOT KNOWN GREAT EVIL – A LAMENT FROM A PLACE OF PRIVILEGE
I have not known great evil. Yet it haunts my past and shapes my present. Who can say that the enslavement, brutal lynching, and systematic dehumanization of a kidnapped race does not haunt America and the world? Who can hear the reported words of a young girl who inexplicably survived the gas chamber saying “I want my mommy,” and not think the world forever marred by the unspeakable evil of the Shoah. That girl was subsequently shot, by the way. How can one respond to such things and hold to hope, let alone sanity?

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from The Economist

Companies warn of economic crisis as China fights the coronavirus
Rarely have plans in China fallen apart so swiftly, so publicly. On January 12th the leaders of Hubei declared that the province’s GDP would grow by 7.5% this year. They also vowed to make the province a stronger link in high-tech supply chains. They made no mention of a mysterious new virus that was causing pneumonia and spreading fast through the cities and towns under their watch. But less than two weeks later its scale was too big to ignore. Under intense pressure to act, they placed the entire province under quarantine, hemming in 60m people and rendering their flashy economic targets almost certainly unreachable this year. Their focus instead shifted to stopping the illness and keeping people supplied with necessities. Share prices in mainland China have fallen by 10% since January 20th. Factories and offices, already shut for the new-year holiday, were supposed to reopen in recent days but many have stayed shut.

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from Hoover Institution
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California

March Routes, Trade Routes, Plague Routes
War and trade have been the great abettors of epidemic disease throughout history. Despite remarkable advances in public health practices, sanitation, medicine, and awareness over the past century and a half, the old patterns persist, if—for now—on a less-lethal scale. Just a decade ago, United Nations peacekeepers from Nepal carried cholera to Haiti. Thousands died. As you read this, a multi-sided conflict in eastern Congo and its vicinity challenges health workers struggling to fight Ebola.

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from MyNorthwest.com

Media/News Company in Seattle

Rantz: Democrats and Socialists broke the Iowa caucus

As of late Tuesday, the Iowa Democratic party wasn’t confident in its reporting. The Iowa caucus system is in disarray. Candidates have been deeply hurt by the nonsense unfolding. But not all of them.

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from The Roman Anglican  (blog)

An Anglican review on art and history, based in Rome.

EXAMPLES OF BAD CONSERVATION AND GOOD CONSERVATION: ITALY, DIOCESE OF GIBRALTAR
During the Grand Tour, Italy became a hot destination for British travellers coming to enjoy the beautiful weather and the splendour of both classical and religious art and architecture. During the late 19th century Italy was disseminated with English chapels and churches. Not only did the big cities such as Rome or Florence have two or three congregations each, but even the smallest resort towns in the middle of Tuscany or in the alps ended up with an Anglican chapel of some sort. Especially with the rising popularity and affordability of trains, Italy became a popular destination for both the middle and upper classes. Two different examples of these are the churches that were founded in Florence and Sanremo. The first being the principal meeting place of the largest English community of the continent, in a city that prided itself with the title of capital of the Renaissance, the other being a leisure destination at the heart of the Italian Riviera, and much desired in the summer months to escape the scorching weather of the larger cities. In this brief article we will see how the two main English churches founded in these two cities can be taken as examples of good and bad preservation of our cultural heritage, as although the two still exist, are no longer in use with the Anglican congregations, both having sold recently during the second half of the twentieth century.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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